The present invention relates generally to interactive computer technology and, more particularly, to a method and system using a computer to electronically compose music and generate corresponding graphical animation.
The composition of music is usually restricted to those individuals with musical talent or, at a minimum, an understanding of music. Without one or the other, an individual will usually find it difficult to compose music successfully when measured by a common yardstick of taste. Thus, the widespread use of computers, while providing a wide variety of tools to the expert musician, has done little to open doors for the musically unsophisticated to experience the joy of creating music. For example, software programs exist that allow a musician to compose, record, play back, and print music in various ways. These programs use, for example, digital audio and Musical Instruments Digital Interface (MIDI) that allow a musician to hear music the second it is created, access a near infinite variety of musical instruments, and make major changes to a composition with little effort. The problem with these tools is that the user must still bring an understanding of music and/or talent into the process to create something that will satisfy oneself or others.
One solution allows those with little musical experience and sophistication to interact with a previously composed musical work. An example is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,694. This patent discloses a method in which a musical expert reduces a pre-existing musical work into its elements such as, for example, a solo track and accompanying tracks to create a musical template. These tracks are then stored in a database. Additional solo and accompanying tracks may be composed by the expert musician and also stored in the database. The musically unsophisticated user can then construct a new arrangement of the existing musical work by selecting various tracks from the database and allocating the tracks to fixed positions in the template. The template allows a user to rearrange, for example, pieces of the accompanying track while preserving the underlying structure of the musical work composed by the expert musician.
This method, however, provides too much structure for an unsophisticated user interested in composing a unique musical work. It restricts the creative process to selecting pieces from an expert musician""s pre-composed tracks and placing them in positions defined by the expert musician""s template.
U.S. Pat. 5,679,913 discloses an electronic apparatus for automatic composition and reproduction of musical works. The electronic apparatus comprises means for reading data of musical events on data tracks and make the temporal lengths of selected data tracks uniform and to synchronize in real time the reading of data tracks having equal or different length. This document is considered with composition and reproduction of music only.
WO 97/21210 discloses a method and apparatus for interactively creating musical compositions based on a database with musical sequences and a template comprising a plurality of sequence positions. Using a menu-driven, graphical interface utilizing icons and images, a user interactively selects a plurality of the fixed musical sequences, and allocates the selected sequences among the various fixed sequence positions specified by the template. The result of this interactive selection procedure is a musical composition that can be played. This document is also considered with composition and reproduction of music only, despite a graphical user interface is employed in the creating and playing of music.
U.S. Pat. 5,005,459 discloses a musical tone visualising apparatus including an image memory for storing plural images relating to players or musical instruments of an orchestra, a display unit for displaying the images on a display screen thereof and a display control circuit for controlling the display unit so that displayed images can be varied in response to an inputted musical tone signal or inputted performance information outputted from an electronic instrument. Thereby, the displayed images can be automatically varied in response to the performance of the electronic musical instrument.
In light of the foregoing, there is a need for a method and system that allows a musically unsophisticated user to experience the joy of composing music.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method for using a computer to compose a musical work and create a video of an animated character. The present invention includes the steps of interactively selecting a music sample from a plurality of music samples, wherein each of the music samples is an independent pre-composed piece of music of fixed duration. A user then, interactively places the selected music sample in a location in the musical work, and interactively repeats the step of selecting a music sample and placing the selected music sample in a location in the musical work, as desired by the user, to create the musical work.
In another aspect, the invention includes a method for using a computer to compose a musical work for a plurality of instruments including the steps of interactively selecting one of a plurality of musical instruments, interactively selecting one of a plurality of music samples, wherein each of the music samples is an independent pre-composed piece of music. A user then sequentially arranges the selected music samples. The user then interactively selects another one of the plurality of musical instruments and interactively repeats the steps of selecting a plurality of music samples and sequentially arranging the selected music samples for another one of the plurality of musical instruments. Next, the user interactively selects one of the music samples previously arranged and interactively harmonizes the arranged music samples of all instruments that correspond in time to the selected music samples. The user interactively repeats the step of selecting one of the music samples previously arranged, and harmonizing the arranged music samples of all instruments that correspond in time to the selected music sample previously arranged to compose the musical work.
In another aspect, the invention includes a system for composing a musical work comprising a central processing unit, a video display, an input device, a general memory, means for interactively selecting a plurality of the music samples, interactively arranging the selected music samples in a serial manner for a plurality of instruments, and interactively selecting the music samples to be harmonized, as desired by the user, and means for playing the musical work. The general memory stores a plurality of music samples, wherein each of the music samples is an independent pre-composed piece of music, a harmonizer program that harmonizes the music samples selected and arranged by a user, and a program that facilitates composition of the music.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.